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smbilodeau · 6 months

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Return of the Thin Man

Finished listening to “Return of the Thin Man” by Dashiell Hammett.

This is more than just an excellent audio presentation of the two eponymous novellas upon which the films “After the Thin Man” and “Another Thin Man” were based. It’s also contains quite a bit of history (Hollywood’s, the era's, and Hammett’s) and behind the scenes information.

And it is an excellent audio presentation, once I got over the mental dissonance of not having Nick and Nora Charles voiced by William Powell and Myrna Loy. Well voice acted, both stories move along at the swift pace you’d expect a Nick and Nora Charles story to move.

While there are some slight differences between the novellas, and the films, the overall faithfulness between the two really is astonishing (particularly to those of us used to today’s Hollywood “based on” shenanigans.)

Highly recommended just for the stories themselves. If you’re already familiar with the Thin Man oeuvre, or you enjoy behind the scenes looks at Hollywood history, you’ll really enjoy this. Also, watch all the Thin Man movies, too, they’re very enjoyable.

#return of the thin man #dashiell hammet #audio book review

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pageturnersblog · 1 year

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Quick thoughts review of The Rom-Com Agenda by Jayne Denker. Super fun heart warning story. Contemporary fiction romcom. Great romance/fiction cross over.

#books #booksofinstagram #booksta #review #audio book review #book review #romcom #summer reading #reading #bookrecommendations

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gemmiejewel · 26 days

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Unveiling History's Icons: A Review of "Dead Famous" by Greg Jenner

Are you ready to embark on a journey through time and uncover the intriguing lives of history’s most iconic figures? If so, then Greg Jenner’s “Dead Famous” is the perfect companion for your adventure. In this captivating book, Jenner takes readers on a whirlwind tour of famous historical figures, offering a fresh perspective that combines humour, insight, and impeccable storytelling. Dead…

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#audio book review #Blog Post #book #Book Reviews #books #five star #Musings #non fiction #old book #stories #thoughts

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nerdgeist1 · 2 years

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Chrono Virus – Audio Book Review

It was supposed to be just another cargo run, but for Ken Mallory and the three-person crew of the Raven, an anomaly in deep space changes everything. An unexplained turbulence shakes the small ship like never before, allowing a deadly virus aboard. One by one the infected crew is thrown back in time to relive a near-death experience, only this time death may be closer than they remember.

Visit Now: https://nerdgeist.com/2014/04/29/chrono-virus-audio-book-review/

#Audio Book Review #nerdgeist

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sophieinwonderland · 7 months

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The Plurality of... The Hybrid Chronicles: What's Left of Me

Over the past couple weeks, I've been listening to book one of The Hybrid Chronicles, What's Left of Me.

And it is AMAZING. Fantastic story with a fantastic narrator!

As always, expect huge spoilers ahead!

A World of Twin Souls

The Hybrid Chronicles takes place in an alternate reality where every person is born as two people. Each has their own name. Each has motor control of the body at different times and can switch who is in control. And they communicated with each other internally with mindvoices just like most systems.

This is how it is in the beginning, at least.

There's a recessive soul that usually fades away naturally though childhood. Usually around 4 or 5. Some take longer. If the recessive soul doesn't fade away, if they don't "settle", then the two become a Hybrid.

If a child reaches 10 and hasn't settled yet, they're sent away to nightmarish institutions.

The history the government gives explains that Hybrids are all terrible and chaotic. At some point in the history of The Americas (The whole supercontinent appears to have one centralized government in this universe) people rebelled against the Hybrid leadership, massacred the Hybrids, and took control of their new Hybrid-free nation.

The Americas became intensely xenophobic and trade was cutoff from the rest of the world.

The government of The Americas pushes constant anti-hybrid propaganda, showing the other nations as violent and destructive because of their hybrid leadership.

A weird note on names: One of the least believable things about this story to me is that parents give their children two names. It seems like it would make much more sense for them to just call each soul by the same name. Maybe with a number attached. For example, you might just have Addie 1 and Addie 2 instead of Eva and Addie. Then when the recessive soul fades away, it will feel less like your child just died. Because it seems really messed up that there's just a world where you're expected to name two children, knowing that one would be guaranteed death. (In real life, it's common for places with high infant mortality rates to not name their babies immediately.)

But then again, maybe some people tried that, and it just resulted in one of the souls choosing a different name for themselves anyway. And then if that soul with a different name settled as the dominant, then the parents get a child with a name they didn't choose. I suppose I could accept that headcanon. 🤷‍♀️

Eva and Addie

That brings us to the main characters. Our viewpoint character is Eva, a recessive soul who has lost motor control of the body. But she didn't fade away completely. She shares a head with Addie.

The two have to constantly hide who and what they are from the world, lying to everyone and saying that only Addie survived.

At the same time, Eva longs for nothing more than to be able to move her fingers again. To talk to people outside of their body.

The relationship between these two characters is the heart of What's Left of Me. The two are like sisters. They comfort each other when they're hurt or scared. They fight with each other. They fight for each other. And they are both willing to sacrifice for the other.

Addie has to wrestle between her desires to remain "normal," and to support Eva and let Eva be herself.

As a system, something I often hear come up from singlets is a question of why you would let someone take control of your body.

And I think this amazing bit of dialog when Addie and Eva find a way for Eva to regain her mobility encapsulates it perfectly.

When you care about someone, of course you would be willing to give up time for them. Even if it's hard sometimes to step away from the reins.

At its core, this book is about pluralphobia. In part, from a society that is openly hostile to plurals. But it's also about internalized pluralphobia. It's about Addie and Eva's self-hatred instilled into them by a world that refuses to accept them.

It's about their own struggle to be able to accept themselves.

This is such a poignant quote and it stuck with me more than anything else in the book.

So far, most of the excerpts from this are focused on the general premise of the book and the relationship of the protagonists. What I'm going to say next is more spoilery as it's from near the end of the book. If what I've mentioned already as enticed you to read it for yourself, this is a good place to stop...

...

Acceptance

Through the story, Eva gradually regains motor controls and the two start to accept themselves more.

And I must say that it's an amazing journey. I love seeing Eva so excited to talk to people and even just move her fingers for the first time in years.

Every new milestone is so well-written. (And the narrator does an incredible job playing the characters in the audio book.)

And it all culminates in this exchange, with Eva in full control and no longer hiding, or ashamed to be who she is.

Proud. Determined. No longer afraid to be who she is.

Parallels to Real Pluralphobia

The ages of settling are interesting to me. If it's not done intentionally, it at least feels like a pretty big coincidence.

I recently mentioned my feelings about imaginary friends and the belief that many of them are sentient beings. Through that lens, you can see a lot of parallels.

An imaginary friend in childhood may be treated as if they're real by the rest of the family, just playing around. It's often seen as a normal thing. But as a child ages, imaginary friends are more stigmatized. Children are expected to outgrow them. And most will disappear.

Except when they don't...

And then having people in your head is suddenly treated as an illness. You're suffering psychotic hallucinations or a dissociative disorder. Much like with hybrids, you're treated as if you're "sick" or "broken."

And the age range of this is pretty close. Most imaginary friends fade away during early childhood. This is also when self-states are alleged to become fully integrated and why 10 is usually considered the maximum cutoff for the trauma that causes DID.

Stigma of plurals as "dangerous" is persistent through our media in the form of the evil alter trope, and through media that portrays malevolent psychotic hallucinations as self-conscious entities with their own identities and personality.

There's not some huge government conspiracy in real-life. But the connections are definitely there between the fear of hybrids in The Hybrid Chronicles and the pluralphobia and ableism plurals experience in the real world.

And with our country's history of ableism, even being forcefully shipped away to an institution for being plural would have been a real fear 50 years ago.

On mechanics of Manifestation Types and Emotion Influence...

Having compared the plurality of the book to real plurality and to imaginary friends, I should mention that the souls of the book are exclusively fronters. There are no inner worlds, nor do either Addie or Eva have external visualized mindforms.

And even when she lacks control, Eva seems to almost always be attuned to the body.

Another thing the book handled really well, I thought, was the sharing of emotions between the two and how they can both experience emotions from the other, while clearly identifying those emotions as belonging to the other soul.

And with this excerpt, I feel I should also give a shoutout to the unique formatting choice to denote their mind speech. Though, full disclosure: the audio book can be confusing sometimes when that formatting doesn't exist and you have to depend heavily on context clues to figure out if something was said in their head or through their mouth. Sometimes I didn't realize that something had been verbalized... or not verbalized... until a few sentences later.

Conclusion

What's Left of Me is a fantastic book exploring (whether intentional or not) plurality and pluralphobia in an alternate universe where everyone is born with two souls. It's such a great story, and the dynamic between Eda and Addie is handled amazingly.

Writing this felt weird. When doing The Plurality of… Batman (Failsafe), I was focusing on one character who happened to be plural and ignoring most of the story aside from what was relevant to that.

Likewise, The Plurality of… Skyward - Diones dealt with a single alien species. None of these really felt like I was writing a review of the whole work.

But with What's Left of Me, the plurality is so central to everything that it's practically unavoidable. It's seeped into every layer of the worldbuilding and the characters.

I still left a lot out. There are a bunch of hybrids in this book and a lot I could say about each of them. Maybe I will another time. I chose to only focus on Addie and Eva to keep this from getting too unfocused and avoid giving much more away than I needed to.

And that itself is a situation I haven't been in, where I feel like I need to omit a lot of the plurality in a story just because there's SO MUCH there.

It's a plural world where about half the characters are plurals.

And I only talked about the main two.

There is just too much plurality in this book to cover it all in a single post. So do check it out for yourselves.

And as always, thank you for your time. Have an amazing day! 💖

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sosotiredsos · 11 days

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The Cat Who Saved Books, Sosuke Nataukawa

;English translation by Louise Heal Kawai

“This world throws all kinds of obstacles at us; we are forced to endure so much that is absurd.”

★★★☆☆; charmingly sweet, softly profound. Sweet for the soul, kind to the mind. “If you’re going to climb, make it a tall mountain. The view will be so much better.”

ᯓ★ Fantasy, magical realism, contemporary fantasy. 192 pages, available as an audiobook!

#audio book #book quotes #book recommendations #book review #book aesthetic #contemporary literature #aesthetic #translated literature #translated fiction #cats

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mended-bunny · 4 months

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On Third Eye by Felicia Day

I am not an expert in tropes or storytelling. I'm just a fan of fantasy stories, and a lover of magic. But I'm going to give my review on the audio drama Third Eye by Felicia Day.

Third Eye is a concept that's been done before, but not often. What happens when the hero destined to save the world.... Fails?

This irreverent take on YA fiction (that is very much not YA) is an excellent use of flipped tropes and self-aware comedy that doesn't take itself too seriously. The story is excellent, and the voice acting is spectacular. (Though with talent like Neil Gaiman, Felicia Day, Will Wheaton, Danny Pudi, Sean Astin, and LilyPichu, I would have been shocked if the acting was anything less.) The story explores depression and trauma, and the long term effects of mental and emotional abuse in a way that left me vaguely uncomfortable. If it isn't clear, that is a *big* endorsement from this child of an abusive home. It made me think about abuse and self love in a way that I hadn't ever processed. I know it's unlikely that Felicia Day will ever see this, but just in case she ever does. Felicia, you're fantastic. I appreciate you for your portrayal of Laurel. It helped me.

Long story short, if you grew up on YA fantasy novels and enjoy writing in the style of Neil Gaiman and Douglas Adams, I cannot recommend this fantastic audio drama enough.

#third eye #felicia day #neil gaiman #will wheaton #sean astin #danny pudi #lilypichu #fantasy #audio drama #book review

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whimsicaldragonette · 2 years

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Arc & Audio ARC Review: Aces Wild: A Heist by Amanda DeWitt

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Publication Date: September 13, 2022

Synopsis:

What happens in Vegas when an all-asexual online friend group attempts to break into a high-stakes gambling club? Shenanigans ensue. Some people join chess club, some people play football. Jack Shannon runs a secret blackjack ring in his private school’s basement. What else is the son of a Las Vegas casino mogul supposed to do? Everything starts falling apart when Jack’s mom is arrested for their family’s ties to organized crime. His sister Beth thinks this is the Shannon family’s chance to finally go straight, but Jack knows that something’s not right. His mom was sold out, and he knows by who. Peter Carlevaro: rival casino owner and jilted lover. Gross. Jack hatches a plan to find out what Carlevaro’s holding over his mom’s head, but he can’t do it alone. He recruits his closest friends—the asexual support group he met through fandom forums. Now all he has to do is infiltrate a high-stakes gambling club and dodge dark family secrets, while hopelessly navigating what it means to be in love while asexual. Easy, right?

My Rating: ★★★★★

*My Review below the cut.

My Review:

This was so much fun! I was drawn into the story immediately and immediately sympathetic to the main character. He was sarcastic, self-deprecating, funny, and a very believable teenager -- some of my favorite things in a protagonist. He made a lot of very realistic, very bad decisions, especially early on when he felt like he was alone and his world was falling apart. Sometimes he even knew they were bad decisions and he still made them. He was a very realistic teenager, in other words. I LOVE that the entire crew he pulls together for his heist are ace. It's such a fun detail, and so relatable - not having friends in your immediate surroundings but connecting with people all over the country on fanfiction forums and then forming a chat support group for ace people? Definitely felt familiar, which drew me in even more. I almost felt like I was a member of the group and in on their shenanigans. The heist itself sometimes took a backseat to the family and friend group drama, but I'm ok with that. There was still plenty of heist action there, but I was there for the character interactions anyway as I generally prefer character driven to plot driven stories. I love love loved the characters. They were all such individuals, with unique characteristics and mannerisms that didn't feel forced at all. They felt like real people you might find anywhere. Well, they felt like real teenagers that you might meet at the outskirts of the school social scene, which is where I've always been the most comfortable. In short - I wanted to be their friend too. They were very obviously my people. I like how the 'being ace' aspect was handled, as well as the tentative love story. It was sweet and realistic and believable... and familiar. Aside from the whole heist thing, it could have been me and my friends in high school and college. That sense of familiarity, of belonging, made me love this book 1000x more than I would have based solely on the plot. Obviously not everyone is going to feel this sentimental about the book and characters, but I think a lot of people will really see themselves here and feel seen. Las Vegas was an excellent choice of setting because the glitter and glamour made an excellent contrast to the seriousness of the beginning and then an excellent background and distraction during the plotting and executing of the heist itself. I've never been to Las Vegas, but after reading this I feel like I was there. The descriptions didn't ever try to take over the story like in some books, but I still felt like everything was very grounded in a specific place and could even almost see it playing out in my head. in fact I did see it that way - I have very specific visual memories of events in the book. It was like watching a movie. Ocean's 11, but with teenagers. The audiobook was narrated flawlessly and I love the narrator and the choices he made for the different voices and the way he told the story. Just perfect all around. I bumped the speed up to 2x because he spoke a little slowly for my taste - many people do - and it was still perfectly clear and easy to understand and all the emotion came through easily. *Thanks to NetGalley, Peachtree Teen, and Recorded Books for providing an e-arc and audio arc for review.

#amanda dewitt #aces wild #lgbt+#lgbt+ books #asexuality #netgalley #shilo reads #arc review #audio arc review #peachtree teen #recorded books

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quirkycatsfatstacks · 2 months

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Review: Graphic Audio – Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells

Series: The Murderbot Diaries #6Author: Martha Wells Find it on Goodreads | Graphic Audio | More Murderbot Graphic Audio Review Wow, I can’t believe Graphic Audio is almost caught up with The MurderBot Diaries already! (Side note: what should I listen to next?). Fugitive Telemetry is the sixth novella in the series. It’s also the first one that’s set on Preservation Station. Yeah, it’s…

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#Book #Book Box #Book Review #Books #Fiction #Fugitive Telemetry #Fugitive Telemetry by Martha Wells #Graphic Audio #Literary #Literature #Martha Wells #Review #Science Fiction #Science Fiction Review #The Murderbot Diarie #The Murderbot Diaries #The Murderbot Diaries 6

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pageturnersblog · 27 days

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#QuickThoughts #Review #theideaofyou by #robinnelee (@robinnelee) The one where your mom falls for your teen idol crush and finds herself.

#books #audiobook #audiobookrec #audiobooks #penguinbooks #bookrecs #fiction #penguinaudio #romanceaudiobookrec #romancebook #contemporaryromance #womansfiction #romancebookrecs

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#book review #audio book review #the idea of you #books #audiobook #book #romance books #Instagram

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livinginsideabookshelf · 1 year

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With the coffee in front of her, she closed her eyes, and inhaled deeply. It was her moment of happiness.

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justanotherparent · 9 months

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I need more children's book recommendations

My son and husband have been voraciously reading every book in our home and local library. He's got the premise down for a lot of them and althlugh he has favorites he's getting bored.

I'm at a point of needing to buy some more online. Please tell me any and all odd, obscure, or not well known books. If you yourself wrote it, even better.

Please don't recomend LIBBY or other online services to borrow books (or download!) only because he likes to hold them and has sensory meltdowns unless it's a physical copy OR audiobook.

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the-return-of-the-wolf · 3 months

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(via Daughter of the Bone Forest by Jasmine Skye)

4.75 stars

Wow. This was fantastic. Now I want book two immediately. This will be a hard wait. Highly recommend this book. Also, recommend the audiobook because it’s narrated wonderfully.

Rosy is a bone familiar who saves Princess Shaw’s life in the Bone Forest. Shaw offers Rosy a chance to study at Witch Hall in return. Rosy accepts, hoping to find a cure for her grandmother’s illness. At Witch Hall, Rosy gets caught up in political games she doesn’t understand. Shaw wants Rosy for her entourage to lead the upcoming war, but Rosy wants to graduate and save her grandmother. Rosy must choose to either give in to her destiny or return home to the Bone Forest.

#daughter of the bone forest #jasmine skye #book review #booklr #bookblr #review #audiobook #audio arc

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shaddytheguyislazy · 17 days

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